KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should be awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts to promote peace and criminalise war.

The suggestion came from three panellists at the Criminalise War Conference and Exhibition at Putra World Trade Centre here yesterday.

They are former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, 2003 receipent of Nuclear-Free Future Award Dr Souad Naji Al-Azzawi and executive committee member of Brussels Tribunal Dirk Adriaensens.

The panellists described Dr Mahathir as "brave" for criticising the superpowers for launching wars that led to the killings of many innocent people, including children.

Moazzam, who is the first former Guantanamo prisoner to publish a book entitled Enemy Combatant, said he respected the efforts by Dr Mahathir to criminalise war.

Moazzam who also works with Reprieve, Amnesty International and Peacemaker said war criminals should receive heavy punishment as war was a rape of human rights.

Souad, who is a former professor of Environmental Engineering at Baghdad University, said Dr Mahathir's commendable efforts to take war criminals to justice had gone on for many years.

"War should be criminalised as the world needs peace, not fights and violence.

"Human rights should be respected," said Souad, who is also the former vice-president of Mamoun University of Scientific Affairs.

Adriaensens said the Nobel Prize should be awarded to Dr Mahathir as "he loves peace, hates war and respects human rights".

"I am speechless with Dr Mahathir's efforts. I look up to him as he wants to end war forever," said Adriaensens, who is also coordinator of SOS Iraq.

--New Straits Times